Remove non-entities from Startup

I like things to be clean. My Startup is not clean. It does not affect my computer at all, I just don't like it and I'd like to get rid of it.

(I'm running Windows XP Home, fully updated.)

Here's the problem: There are two entries in Startup (Start | Run | msconfig | Startup) that display as a bunch of little squares. Since I can't replicate the squares, I cannot search the registry for them and remove them. The location is listed as Software/Microsoft/Windows NT/Current Version/Windows, but I can't find any entry of squares in any subdirectory of the registry with that path.

I tried checking the two items and restarting the computer, but I got no error message and nothing extra started. I went back into Startup and found that they had unchecked themselves, so I still can't find where in the Registry they may be hiding.

(If I uncheck them myself, and restart, I get the message that I am in diagnostic mode and should deal with it. But when I check these and restart, they uncheck themselves and I do not receive the message about being in diagnostic mode.)

As you can see, this is far from an emergency; it has no effect on my computer one way or another. I just don't like those things sitting there, mocking me. Any idea how I can get rid of them?

Thanks!

in the registry go to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Run
and
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Current Version\Run

then remove the items from this list.


Before you remove these items, make sure you hit CTRL+ALT+DEL to view the task manager, under processes right click the offending item and "end process tree" before you delete anything from the registry - this is because some programs can detect when their registry entry has been deleted and can re-instate it.